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Your face is your password
OCBC introduces facial verification at ATMs across Singapore
Tom King 26 Apr 2021

Singapore lender OCBC began rolling out facial verification at its automated teller machines last month. The first service the biometric tool is being used for is account balance enquiries. The bank intends to quickly ramp up the face verification technology for other services such as cash withdrawals to all of its ATMs in Singapore. 

The move takes the city state closer to eliminating the need to carry around an ATM card, which can be skimmed or stolen and also taps into Singapore’s National Digital Identity (NDI) platform and biometric database.

Unlike facial recognition, which matches a physical face seen in a crowd to a list of images on a database, facial verification is done with the knowledge and collaboration of the user. Singapore’s SingPass face verification always seeks the user’s consent before it is initiated for transactions.

To use the authentication system at an ATM, customers select the service they want before entering their national ID number on the screen. They are then prompted to position their face within a frame on the screen, while a web-enabled camera takes a scan of their face and verifies in real time the scanned image against the national biometric database to which OCBC Bank’s ATM network is digitally linked. Once the facial scan is verified, the customer can proceed with their transaction. 

The face verification is embedded with security features to prevent fraud, including liveness-detection technology that detects and blocks the use of photographs, videos, or masks during the verification process.

However, just as many hesitated to use their fingerprints or faces to open phones, bank customers, who have used ATM cards for decades, may also initially be wary of the switch to biometrics. 

Security concerns

Gordon McKeown, head of audit, risk and compliance products at Ideagen, a global supplier of regulatory and compliance solutions, says: "Security and compliance in financial dealings are of the utmost importance. Financial institutions need to ensure they have the trust of their customers, who will vote with their feet and move to a competitor if they don't feel confident with their provider’s security measures.”

Aradhna Sharma, regional director at big data and artificial intelligence (AI) firm Advance.AI, says banking clients have at least three areas of concern about using face verification technology.

“First and foremost is around transparency over how data is used, stored and secured,” she says. “Customer consent is obviously a must, for example, through face-to-face consultation that is recorded and documented, or by e-signatures and approvals.”

“Second, any data and AI frameworks should be in compliance with existing government laws and regulations that address data privacy, storage, and security. Third, AI decisioning frameworks (including those powering facial verification) must be used such that the AI is explainable in layman terms, transparent, fair, and human-centric.” Sharma points out that while cost savings are often part of the initial decision to automate processes with technology, compliance remains the major concern over cost.

Speaking at the Global Technology Law Conference in 2015, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, predicted the introduction of facial verification for bank customers when he said: “In the future, we may not have to remember complex passwords or worry about password compromise. Fingerprint, iris, facial and voice recognition, and even palm vein and heartbeat recognition systems are being explored for authentication purposes.”

Significant benefits

The use of facial verification can go beyond basic retail banking transactions. “Facial verification is a subset of AI technology, which can be used across a range of scenarios to limit credit and fraud risks, assess alternative credit scoring for underwriting risk or general business transformation, and digitization of processes such as identity verification or eKYC customer onboarding,” says Sharma.

This is especially relevant post Covid-19, when banks are reducing physical branches, undergoing digital transformation and optimizing resource efficiency/work processes, and also expanding access to financial products and services in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and regions. 

She highlights Indonesian digital lending platform Danamart, which used facial verification and liveness detection solutions to accelerate their customer verification process with an accuracy rate of over 99%, and making them available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Danamart was able to accelerate and digitize the entire customer onboarding process, redeploy staff to other critical areas of the business, saving time and resources without compromising compliance requirements,” Sharma notes.

In January 2020 the Reserve Bank of India passed regulation allowing banks and other lending institutions in India to use a video-based customer identification process (V-CIP) to help them onboard customers remotely. This service relies heavily on facial certification solutions to authenticate and onboard new customers as well as customer documentation. 

The benefits of AI to the banking and financial sector will continue to be significant in the areas of risk mitigation, operational and process efficiency, cost savings and customer experience.

Authenticating your identity is critical to gaining access to a variety of financial services and performing financial transactions. And it is likely that as Singapore’s retail customers grow more accustomed to new technologies, more innovations will come into service to further enhance their banking experience.

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Robert Coughlan
Robert Coughlan
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Google Cloud
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Oliver Johnson
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